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"Saints forbid, Señorita!" said Paula, who had no love for the mysterious, and who was more Mexic than Porno, "there are demons and devils there!" "Yes, I doubt not, Paula," said Tharon grimly. "They say Courtrey knows th' Cañons, an' when he's there, it's peopled, an' no mistake! "But it must be beautiful beautiful!
It lay at least a thousand miles a thousand miles of ugly, primeval jungle from the nearest unfriendly isuan ranch, and was diametrically opposite Port o' Porno. Thus it allowed Leithgow and Carse to come and go with but faint chance of being observed, and the steady watch kept through the laboratory's telescopic instruments lessened even that.
It was bound inward toward Port o' Porno, and might well have been one of Ku Sui's. But the Scorpion, slowing down for her rendezvous, had attracted no attention and had passed undisturbed. Now she hung motionless that is, motionless with respect to the sun.
And now was heard a rustling of ladies' silks, and of cavaliers' velvets, and the grateful spectators took their seats, while the emperor, with a look of extreme satisfaction, opened the score of the Porno d'Oro, laid it on the ledge of the box, and began to hum the overture. "Have you your text-book?" asked he of the empress.
"No, M. S. couldn't risk it. You're too valuable a man. But don't worry, you know my luck. I'll very likely be down to see you after this meeting, and perhaps with a visitor who will enable you once again to return to an honorable position on Earth. Where will you be?" "In eight Earth days? Let's make it Porno, at the house you know. I'll come in for some supplies and wait for you."
"Just fine, Carse," came in the clear, cultured voice of Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow, probably the greatest scientific mind in the solar system, Ku Sui being the only possible exception. He spoke now from his secret laboratory on Jupiter's Satellite III, near Porno, this transcendent genius who, with Friday, was one of Carse's two trusted comrades-in-arms.
It was a time to keep strictly in hiding. In the middle of that night, when the pleasures of Porno were in full stride, there emerged suddenly, from one of the dark, crooked byways that angled off the Street of the Sailors, a squad of five men whose disciplined pace and regular formation were in marked contrast to the confusion around them.
Whatever variations their contacting took, there was another consideration, Carse's celestial charts revealed, and that was the proximity of the rendezvous to Jupiter's Satellite III, less than three hundred thousand miles. Satellite III harbored Port o' Porno, main refuge and home of the scavengers, the hi-jackers, and out-and-out pirates of space, so many of whom were under Ku Sui's thumb.
Around Porno was the constant threat of savage life; below it were half-human savagery and mystery; above, in the very shadow of their mighty engines of space, were the most vicious animals of all degraded men. This was the Port o' Porno of a hundred years ago. This was the Port o' Porno where Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow for very good reasons had told Hawk Carse he would meet him. 574.
"Then where'll we pick up a crew, suh? Porno? It's the nearest port, I reckon." "I'm not taking any crew, Eclipse." Friday gaped in surprise at his master, then found words: "No crew, suh? Against Ku Sui? We'll be throwin' our lives " "I've lost enough men in the last two days," Carse cut in shortly. "And this meeting with Dr. Ku is a highly personal affair.
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